Our Office.

The Chase Homestead.

Our office is located in a house originally built by Benjamin Toppin Chase sometime around the turn of the 19th Century.

After Mr. Chase’s marriage to Miss Submit Woodman in 1815, the house was not only their home, but also a store and a tavern. Since the house was located on the stage coach line between New Hampshire and Portland, the house also provided rest and supplies for the stage coaches.

The house is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Connection to Rufus Porter.

This historic house reveled a surprise after renovations began to restore the building to become the new office of RHR Smith & Company in the early 2000s. After 7 layers of wall paper were removed from what is now our conference room, a beautiful mural was uncovered which was painted in the early 1830s by the famous Rufus Porter.

The room was evaluated and mural fully restored thanks to the Buxton Historic Society. Porter was best known for his murals which span across New England as well as founding the Scientific American Magazine, the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States.

The Crossways

In the early 1870’s the house became the headquarters for the Buxton and Hollis Agricultural Society’s annual fairs which were held in the nearby park. The ballroom and dining area in the house were used to entertain fair goers.

In 1908, the property was purchased by A.L.T. Cummings, City Clerk of Portland, as a summer home. He renovated the home and renamed it “Crossways”. The house was used to entertain the political and social elite from Portland and Buxton.

Our home for 19 years.

The home was purchased by Ronald H.R. Smith in 2000, renovated, and became the Buxton Professional Center, and the home office of RHR Smith & Company, Certified Public Accountants. Many of the original features of the house were retained, and the Rufus Porter mural was restored.

We hope the home remains a source of community pride for another century or more.